In his interview, he touches on the acceptance issues of schools embracing teachnology, specificically social media, in the learning process. As I feel developing the quitesiential “Community of Learners” also involes clearly and effectively communicating with parents and stakeholders (can you tell I’ve just finished job interview season?), I think getting families on board with the social media/school partnership is essential.

Here are a few lines from Mr. Couros I liked:

On filtering

“A lot of stuff that we don’t do is because of fear [of the Internet]”

“What [filtering does] is actually encourages kids to use their own device for unfiltered access.”

“When schools block stuff, they also don’t talk about it, and what they’re doing is setting their kids up to do unsafe things either during school hours or after school hours because they don’t know any better because no one is talking about it because they don’t have to.”

On District Digital Identities:

“When I actually looked at what would be a logical hashtag [for the district]…we found that parents and community members were actually creating a digital footprint..a d igital identity for that school district, that was very negative. So I looked it up, and I saw people that weren’t educators, weren’t able to tell the story of what is actually happening in schools, telling the story of that district…creating a digital identity for that district that is very negative. We are on the other end of that spectrum where we don’t want that happening. We encourage debate. We encourage people being critical of the things we’re doing because we don’t learn anything when everyone agrees with us. We want them to be engaged in conversation, but we want to be at the table, actively involved in the conversations, instead of outside the restaurant.”

So…

As I’m taking on a new administrative role, where do I go with social media? Our district has and maintains an information-based website and Twitter account. The district and middle school also have their own Facebook pages. We have a lot of great things going on (and hopefully even more, soon!) in the district and elementary building that I’d love to share with our community!

I’ve seen the value of effective social media use in schools. One great example was when Tecumseh Junior High School Principal Brett Gruetzmacher (@BGruetzmacher) used his building’s Facebook page to keep parents posted about late dismissal of students due to severe weather in the area. We’re nuts for not having systems like that in place.

Surely, however, there are some downsides and things to be aware of.

What are some lessons learned from other administrators/districts/buildings about using Facebook/Twitter accounts to share information? What do I need a heads up about? What conversations need to be held regarding privacy, policy, etc.?

Last summer, I wrote about “Professional Organizations: Friends or Fees”. Well, I caved. During the fall, I took a one-hour graduate class about educational readings. When the time came to find professional articles to read, I, admidingly, went to my principal and asked for copies of her professional journals. And before I knew it, I was stretched out on my couch with a stack of ASCD’s “Educational Leadership” magazines.

So when the time came to write my letter to Santa, I added “ASCD membership” to the list. I figured it was easy for the elves to make in the workshop. Low and behold, I was a good boy, and my girlfriend purchased a membership on my behalf.

February is a fairly edtechy month for me, as it brings Ohio’s eTech Conference. Even better, my first Educational Leadership magazine (of my own!) is titled “Teaching Screenagers” and focuses on edtech issues!

Okay, so there is some value in professional organizations. I certainly won’t let it replace my PLN on Twitter, but it definitely makes a lovely compliment to it.

During one of those insanely early (probably 10:00AM) classes somewhere around my junior year of college, one of my education professors passed out paper applications for ASCD and explained (Charlie-Brown-teacher-style) the value in preservice teachers belonging to professional organizations. Sure, she explained the many benefits of a subscription to the organization’s magazine Educational Leadership (as if we all needed a little more late-night reading material), but we all saw through the smoke and acknowledged the fact that “Two-year member of ASCD” would look just dandy on a future resume.

Or would it?

I’d like to look at two points. 1) Does belonging to a professional organization necessarily make a stronger educator? 2) In the age of the Twittersphere, blogs, and wikis, are professional organizations still the tool to use to measure one’s commitment to personal professional (oxymoron?) development?

1) As I start to think long-term about my professional career (redundant?), I realize that there are a few steps that I need to take now to help me out in the future. One day, I hope to be sitting across the table from an interview panel for a building principal position. What happens, then, when the superintendent says, “Ryan, please give us some evidence of your belonging to some education-related professional organizations?” If the interview was tomorrow, there’d be silence. I’ll admit it – I don’t belong to any. Sure, I joined ASCD for a year or so back in college, but the membership renewal probably came and well, being a senior in college…I may or may not have had a few other things on my mind. Since then, I’ve received a healthy serving of mail and email offers from NCSS, NCTE, NCTM (give me a break, I’m not even licensed in math!), NEA, and of course, my old friends at ASCD. To each I have politely thought, “If I had the money…,” and relocated it to the recycling bin.

So what if I hadn’t? What if I re-budgeted the needed registration fees and I said to that superintendent, “I have been an active member of NCSS for four years, NCTE for six years, the NEA for four years, and ASCD for seven years.” Would the superintendent hand me a contract and say, “Oh, well he’s qualified!” What exactly does it mean to be a member of a professional organization? Technically speaking, it only means that you have paid the fees and filled out the paperwork. Typically, one can also assume that the member has received opportunities in her/his inbox for discounted PD and maybe a pretty monthly organization magazine or two in the mail.

One of the buildings in my district recently received an ARRA Title II-D 21st Century Learning Environment Technology Grant (I think that’s the full name?). One of the many benefits of the grant is the addition of a technology coach to the receiving school’s staff. In appendix E of the grant specifications, they list both the requirements and desirable qualifications for the technology coach. One of the desirable qualifications is for the candidate to have, “Current and past membership in professional organizations (e.g., instructional technology organizations – ASCD, Phi Kappa Gamma, NCTM or OCTM, SECO, OCTELA)….” Where, in that requirement, is evidence of authentic professional development?

2) Make no mistake, I get a healthy dose of professional development in the form of readings, dialoge, and exposure to innovation. Mine even comes daily. The development of my professional learning network (PLN) using primarily Twitter (Follow me @mrmalany) has increased my exposure to the education world exponentially! I can get daily, customized online “newspapers” from paper.li and twittertim.es filled with up-to-date articles, videos, screencasts, wikis, forums, and podcasts tailored to specific components of the educational community that interest me. I can participate in (or just monitor) weekly #edchat sessions and am looking forward to upcoming #elemchat sessions starting this Thursday. Although all of these collaboration networks to free, up-to-date, individualized, and are made up of some of the strongest educators from around the world, they still aren’t held in as high regard as paying annual dues to an “official” professional organization. Maybe they should be.

Take this away:

My guess is that I am likely to fire up the registration pages of some of the real professional organizations and type in my credit card number sometime in the near future. When the day comes that I am actually sitting across from a superintendent, I’ll have the answer she or he wants. And I’m sure I will get some development from these organization. But to that, I’ll be sure to add my two cents about the unique gains my PLN has given me. It’s priceless. And when I’m interviewing teacher candidates for my building: bonus points on the hiring rubric if your resume’s contact info includes an “@”!